Our World (Answers for Kids): Ancient Humans, the Ark, and Frogs

Read about ancient humans, the ark, and frogs in this 'Our World' article for kids.

Making Music Long Ago

There are many different kinds of musical instruments, making
many different sounds. There are wind instruments, like trumpets, flutes, and
organs, which make sounds when air is blown through them. And stringed instruments,
like pianos, guitars, and harps, which make sounds when their strings are struck
or plucked.

Some people believe that our ancestors discovered how to make
music by accident long ago, maybe by twanging on a piece of vine stretched between
two trees. In the Bible, we read that people were able to make musical instruments
right at the beginning. 'Jubal was the first person
to play the harp and flute' (Genesis 4:21). So stringed and wind instruments were made and used even before the
Flood of Noah's time. Any musical instruments made before the Flood would have
been destroyed, but some very old ones have been found, like a beautiful Sumerian
harp which is 3,500 years old. This evidence shows that the Bible is right about
how music began.

Our Amazing Ancestors

Were our ancestors 'ape-men'? Many people think they were, because
they have been taught the theory of evolution. The Bible tells a very different
story: that human beings have always been human since God created them, and
that from the very beginning people have been wise and clever. In the Book of
Genesis, chapter four, we can read about some of the things the earliest people
did. These included building cities, keeping livestock, and making tools from
iron and bronze.

Evidence from around the world shows the Bible is right. Hundreds
of ruins of old metal-smelting furnaces show that people were making tools and
weapons from metal more than 4,000 years ago. They made things from copper,
bronze, and tin. The ancient Egyptians even knew how to cover objects with a
thin layer of gold (called electroplating).

Ruins of ancient cities and great temples show that people had
great building skills. Some of the great pyramids of Egypt have survived for
over 4,000 years. The great pyramid of Cheops is as high as a 30-storey building.
It is built of more than two million blocks of stone, and some of the blocks
weigh 30 tonnes! The people who built it had none of our modern machines to
dig the blocks from a distant quarry and carry them to the site, or to lift
them. Yet they did it, and this pyramid is still standing today.

Many so-called modern 'discoveries' are really re-discoveries:
the Chinese were using paper in the second century BC, although Europeans did
not 'discover' it until AD 1430. The Chinese also used human-carrying kites
(hang-gliders) in the fourth century BC. The idea that we have evolved from
'primitive' cave-men is clearly wrong.

Tom and Jenny

But there couldn't have been room for all those animals', objected
Greg, as they walked home from Children's Church. Tom and Jenny had persuaded
Greg to go with them, but he was still sceptical after a talk on Noah. His parents
did not go to church and he found it all very difficult.

That afternoon, Tom said, 'We've got to do something to show people
how big the Ark really was.'

At school, the class had already worked out its measurements.
It was 145 metres (450 feet) long, 24 metres (75 feet) wide, and 15 metres (45
feet) high—a similar size to modern car ferries. But it was still difficult
even for grown-ups to picture it. Jenny got out the farm set they used to play
with, which had cows, sheep, hens, and the farmer. 'If Noah were the size of
this toy farmer, how big would the Ark be?' she asked. They fetched a tape measure.

'He's about five centimetres (two inches). I wonder how tall Noah
was?'

'Let's say he was five feet tall, which is 150 centimetres', said
Tom.

This meant that the real Noah would have been 30 times as tall
as their model farmer. So they would have to divide the Ark's size by 30.

They did some sums, and Tom exclaimed: 'Wow! that's nearly five
metres long. We can't make a model that big!' They wandered around thinking.

'I know,' said Jenny, 'We can make a paper Ark with a long roll
of wallpaper.'

'Good idea!' agreed Tom. 'Dad may have a roll of left-over wallpaper
in the loft.'

They went up and found a fairly strong piece, a plain buff colour.
They measured 4.8 metres (15 feet), but left some extra to fold back to strengthen
the edges.

'Oh, there was a window! Let's not be too fussy—make it about
one centimetre high', said Tom. They cut it out (see Diagram No. 1). There were
three decks, so they ruled these in, and painted the door and some ladders (see
Diagram No. 2).

They took the length of paper on to the lawn. 'It was painted
with pitch inside and out, but we can't paint inside, or we won't see the decks,'
said Jenny. So they painted the back with black powder paint.

'But it won't stand up! What can we do?' said Jenny. After a while,
they thought of sticking half cereal packets to the ends and weighting them
with stones. They also stuck a box to the middle at the back. It could still
be rolled up.

Other children came in to see. 'We've got some animals we never
use,' said Babs. She ran off and came back with two horses, two lions, two tigers,
two monkeys, and two camels. Rachel contributed dogs, ducks, pandas, and bears.
By the end of the week they had two each of more than 20 different animals,
and eight people. Mum put tiny dresses on Mrs Noah, Mrs Ham, Mrs Shem, and Mrs
Japheth, and tunics and head-dresses on the men.

On Saturday they went into town and splashed out their pocket
money on two elephants, two giraffes, two stegosauruses, and two kangaroos.
The kangaroos both had babies in their pouches, so they had to replace one!

It was a happy group of children who put out their model on trestles
in front of the church, and arranged the animals in front of it.

'The Ark was big enough to hold 432 double-decker buses—or cages
that big,' they told the grown-ups, who were amazed when they saw the Ark's
size compared with the animals and people.

'You could keep two giraffes in a double-decker bus!' someone
remarked.

'And such a lot of mice, rabbits or gerbils in another!' laughed
Mum, who had a shed full of them.

They showed the width by putting a piece of string around. Greg
came and put something outside of the string. 'I thought you'd like a whale
in the sea outside,' he laughed. 'I believe the Bible story now I've seen this!'

Tom and Jenny will be back next issue.

You can build a paper Ark too! Why not have a go?

Weird and Wonderful

A frog that holds water

All frogs like water, and spend much of their time in it. They
also like to lay their eggs in water. So you may be surprised to learn that
there is one kind of frog that lives in the desert! After all, deserts are very
dry places, usually with very little water, and are the last place you would
expect a frog to be able to live.

Yet the water-holding frog manages to survive in the deserts
of Australia. Like other frogs, it needs water to stay alive, and also to lay
its eggs, but in the hot desert where it lives there is often no rain for years
at a time. How, then, does the water-holding frog stay alive, having to go so
long without water? It does it in an amazing way.

The frog's name gives us a clue to how it survives. When a long
dry spell begins, and the ground begins to dry up, the water-holding frog burrows
backwards into the mud until it disappears. About 30 centimetres (12 inches)
down it makes a space about twice as big as itself. The frog's body contains
a lot of water, and in this dark hole its skin swells up until it looks as though
it is wrapped in a piece of plastic. Apart from two tiny breathing tubes leading
from its nostrils, it is sealed.

The frog then goes into a state of hibernation, and its heart-beat
and breathing become very slow. It can stay in this state for several years,
only waking when the rains arrive. As soon as this happens, the water-holding
frog wakes up, comes out of its 'sleeping-bag', and springs into life again.

It feasts on insects, and quickly lays its eggs (spawn). Within
a few days the tadpoles emerge, soon becoming tiny frogs. Then, as the puddles
begin to dry up, these young frogs themselves burrow into the mud, to begin
their own long sleep, until the rains come again.

It seems impossible that water-holding frogs could have evolved
to live the way they do. If they had once been like ordinary frogs they would
surely have become extinct, or else moved to live in a wetter place long ago.
The fact that they survive in the desert—the last place you would expect to
find frogs living—suggests they were created by God with the ability to burrow
under the ground, seal themselves in their watertight bag, and sleep safely
until the next rains come.